The modern computing era has brought about a tremendous expansion in computing power as well as increased affordability of computing devices. This expansion in computing power has led to a reduction in the size of computing devices and given rise to a new generation of mobile devices that are capable of performing functionality that only a few years ago required processing power provided only by the most advanced desktop computers. Consequently, mobile computing devices having a small form factor have become ubiquitous and are used by consumers of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
As a result of the expansion in computing power and the reduction in size of mobile computing devices, mobile computing devices are being marketed with an ever increasing array of features. For example, one such feature is the ability for mobile terminals to communicate via device-to-device (D2D) connections.
A D2D connection is operable to enable a mobile terminal to be in direct data communication with another mobile terminal, via the cellular spectrum, without using the one or more base stations within a cellular network. The use of D2D connections enables the transfer of data between mobile terminals over a short distance while avoiding the potential of overloading the cellular network. In future long term evolution (LTE) networks, D2D communications and local switching are to be supported.